3 charts show how MoviePass is changing the movie-theater business but 'playing a dangerous game'

MoviePass.
Business Insider
Since MoviePass dropped its monthly subscription price to $9.95 in August, there has been talk around the industry about how the company can sustain itself over a long period of time.

While that is still yet to be determined, MoviePass is already giving some of the biggest US movie chains a lot of business, according to Second Measure, a firm that analyzes US consumer spending on anonymized debit- and credit-card transactions.

Here are three charts provided by Second Measure that show the influence of MoviePass:

MoviePass' numerous price cuts on membership have helped drive up the company's subscriber count past 2 million, and CEO Mitch Lowe hopes to pass 5 million by the end of the year.

The initial cut to $9.95 led to a more than sixteenfold subscription growth in one month. November's promotion that worked out to $6.95 a month was followed by 14% opting for the full-year deal and a quarter of those annual subscribers purchasing more than one membership. That month, sales were five times as great as in October.

Second Measure, however, believes MoviePass is playing a "dangerous game." The lower the subscription price, the more money the company stands to lose every time its millions of users buy full-price tickets at movie theaters.

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Theater sales have skyrocketed since the growth of MoviePass members spiked

Second Measure

Theater owners will like this one. Theaters are making substantially more money from MoviePass subscribers compared with how those people spent before having a membership.

MoviePass subscriptions brought in 81% more sales at AMC than in one year prior, and 101% more sales to Cinemark. And that's not counting the concessions these folks paid for with cash.

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Competition is coming

Second Measure

It was only a matter of time before MoviePass imitators came on the scene, and Cinemark's Movie Club is the first major one. For $8.99 a month, you receive one ticket a month (it can be rolled over to the next month if not used). Though it's not as sexy as MoviePass' one-movie-a-day deal, people are doing it.

Since its launch in December, Movie Club has enrolled one-fifth as many new users as MoviePass did in that time period.

Nothing MoviePass has to worry about just yet. But there's now someone in its rear-view mirror.